The increasing sophistication of recombinant DNA technology is greatly facilitating the efficacy of many commercially important industries including areas of medical and pharmaceutical research and development. The ability to purify native proteins and subsequently clone genetic sequences encoding these proteins is an important first step in the development of a range of therapeutic and diagnostic procedures. However, practitioners have faced many difficulties in purifying target molecules to an extent sufficient to determine amino acid sequences to permit the development of oligonucleotide probes to assist in the cloning of genetic sequences encoding the target molecules.
Such difficulties have been particularly faced in the research and development of lysosomal enzymes. An important lysosomal enzyme is α-N-acetylglucosaminidase (EC 2.1.50). This enzyme acts as a exoglycosidase in lysosomes to hydrolyse the terminal α-N-acetylglucosamine residues present at the non-reducing terminus of fragments of heparan sulphate and heparin (Hopwood, 1989). A deficiency in this lysosomal hydrolase is responsible for the pathogenesis of Sanfilippo B (Mucopolysaccharidosis type IIIB [MPS-IIIB]) syndrome (von-Figura and Kresse, 1972; O'Brien, 1972). This is an autosomal recessive disorder of glycosaminoglycan catabolism leading to storage and excretion of excessive amounts of heparan sulphate and a variety of clinical phenotypes, but classically presenting with progressive mental retardation in conjunction with skeletal deformities (McKusick and Neufeld, 1983).
There is a need, therefore, to purify α-N-acetylglucosaminidase and to clone genetic sequences encoding same to permit development of a range of therapeutic and diagnostic procedures to assist in the diagnosis and treatment of disease conditions arising from α-N-acetylglucosaminidase deficiency.